Maybe Redemption Has Stories to Tell
by Kihin Ranno
Summary: Logan Echolls is a broken man searching for a savior. Aino Minako is a woman who wants to know what it feels like to save someone again. Their meeting was inevitable, their connection undeniable, and everything else a step on the path towards redemption.
1. Bar Scene

Maybe Redemption Has Stories to Tell  
01: Bar Scene  
Written for the Sailor Moon Monthly Fanfiction Challenge on LiveJournal  
May Challenge - Day One: Turning  
by Kihin Ranno  
1/20

He'd caught sight of her when she was turning around in a bar. From that moment on, he'd wanted her. He wanted to shove her against walls, to smear her lipstick with his thumb, to know how she sounded when she couldn't catch her breath. He wanted all of her even if he knew from sight alone that she'd never give it all.

Logan could have lied to himself and said that it was the grace in her movements, the vigor in her gesture, or the light in her eyes that left him hungry. But he knew it was nothing by physical. Her looks deceived him into thinking she was innocent when her eyes told him she was sullied. But he was a man used to deceiving and willing to be deceived.

He'd come up behind her, his fingers ghosting the small of her back. She turned around, unsurprised at his presence and unmoved by the starving look in his eyes.

"Doing anything?" he asked casually, swallowing on a parched throat.

She shrugged, looking up at him through coal colored eyelashes. "You have something in mind?"

He nodded, shoving his hands in his pockets. He had always assumed he was much smoother than this, but he felt very clumsy at that moment.

She smiled, or it was more accurate to say that her smile changed. She looked like she'd been smiling since she was born and she hadn't bothered to take a break. She reached up and kissed him and it was chaste enough, just a peck really. He couldn't understand why he felt the urge to toss her on top of the bar and fuck her senseless with the whole world watching.

"I don't want to know your name," she said mysteriously.

He smirked and felt back in his element. "Good girl doesn't want to remember her first one night stand?"

She laughed, giggled actually, and said, "Good girl doesn't want you to be sorry when I leave."

Then she turned and started to move away, and he already felt the pangs of loss, but it wasn't for her. It was for another girl who still lived inside his head, red lips twisted into a grin, bare feet leaping from star to star, leaving a trail of glitter and twisted metal in her wake.

But this girl looked over her shoulder and took him by the hand, leading him out. She didn't let go. She didn't abandon him. And nameless as she was, she never ceased to exist.

It was a courtesy he wasn't used to.


	2. Russian Roulette

Maybe Redemption Has Stories to Tell  
02: Russian Roulette  
Written for the Sailor Moon Monthly Fanfiction Challenge on LiveJournal  
May Challenge - Day Two: Bullet  
by Kihin Ranno  
2/20 

"Life is like a fucking game of Russian Roulette," he told her, his bottle of vodka resting between his legs. They were bare and covered by a sheet and the alcohol hadn't made him warm, he would have noticed the goosebumps that were forming on his legs. "Every day you're just pulling the trigger... And then someday-- BAM!" He banged his fist against the headboard. He had expected her to jump and he was surprised when she didn't. "Bam," he continued lamely. "A bullet fucking bites you in the ass."

Logan took another drink. He needed to be drunk. He didn't feel whole when he was sober.

She looked at him, clearly amused by his raving. Her legs were curled up to her chest underneath the sheets, her golden hair spilling over her bare shoulder. Her lips used to glitter with pink shimmer, but now it was a dul sheen smeared across her cheek. He had a sinking feeling that he would have found that attractive even if he was sober.

"Pessimist," she accused, her voice chiming with laughter and silver bells. It reminded him of Lilly even though she was really nothing like Lilly. She just laughed all the time and lived much more than he or any other human being ever could. And sometimes he thought that she had Lilly's eyes.

Logan took a very long drink.

"I've earned the right to make such a judgment," he countered. He wondered if it would have been clever without the slurring or if he was just losing his touch.

She tossed her hair, light blue eyes (which had no green in them. None. They only looked greener when he was sober, and the vodka was curing that optical illusion quite nicely) glittering. "What's happened to you, Jaded Boy?"

It was the fifth nickname she'd come up with since he'd picked her up, but it was by far the least offensive and the most fitting. "I had a girlfriend."

"Ooh," she said, nodding in mock understanding. "It all makes sense now. She break your heart?"

"She fucked my father," he corrected. The bitterness in his voice might have been thick enough for her to taste if he hadn't turned away, the bottle resting on his lips. "And then he killed her. Then he tried to kill my next girlfriend when she found out about it."

She stared, her barely pink lips hanging agape. She was sympathetic, and she probably wanted to hug him. But Logan hadn't been huggable for quite some time. It was in her best interest to sit on her hands.

He was about to take another drink when she took the bottle away from him.

"What the--"

"You don't have the monopoly on tragedy, Jaded Boy," she said, her voice full of steel and wisdom and softness. "It doesn't mean there's a bullet in the chamber."

He darkened and said, "And what happened to you? What happened to you that was so horrible but you can still have hope?"

Then she stopped smiling and he wondered if maybe the world was ending.

"I died," she said simply, everything about her frighteningly serious for a moment. There was something in those two words that hinted at more. Some terror had come round to her and she should have been as angry and hateful and fucked up as he was. But he could tell that she was living and at times happy.

Logan stared. He briefly felt the urge to kiss her hard and make sure she was still there. He wanted to ask her if she'd seen Lilly.

He took his bottle back.

"So the bullet's already come 'round for you," he said, lifting the bottle in toast. "I drink to your death, _Mademoiselle_."

But he wasn't. He was drinking to his own death, praying that the bullet would be in the next round.


	3. All Fall Down

Maybe Redemption Has Stories to Tell  
03: All Fall Down  
Written for the Sailor Moon Monthly Fanfiction Challenge on LiveJournal  
May Challenge - Day Three: Mental Breakdown  
by Kihin Ranno  
3/20

It was wrong to say that he wasn't used to this crumbling, crackling, turning to dust, ripping apart feeling. That would have been a lie, not that it was something he would have objected to. But he knew the feeling of being rendered apart all too well. It always happened when he'd been sober too long.

He didn't know why he thought it would be a good idea not to drink. But he hadn't had so much as a sniff since he woke up in an empty bed, her perfume on his pillows, and four feet strands of hair clogging up his shower drain. That afternoon, when the hangover had begun to wear off and he was beginning to think clearly again, he'd picked up the alcohol and poured it down the drain. Something in him said, "Maybe you should try again. Maybe you should."

He very stupidly did.

He'd forgotten how vivid life was when you were in withdrawal. Though not so much his present as his past. He didn't have a present. He just wandered around L.A. and pissed his dead parents' money away. What kind of present was that?

No, all he could experience was the past. He could only think of Lilly and that perfect prom night with Duncan and Veronica. The first and only time Lilly had said 'I love you.' And then it was Lilly's funeral and he was smashing in Veronica's headlights trying to forget that he'd ever been loyal to her. And he saw his father fucking Lilly on the TV screen, saw his father in the courtroom and deny it all with a smile on his face, saw his father raise the belt without so much as grimace to betray any sort of fury. He saw Veronica looking like maybe she loved him only to be replaced by disgust. He saw those kids who had died in the bus crash whose names he could never remember. He saw Beav... Cassidy. Cassidy, Cassidy, Cassidy jump to his death while Veronica cried into his chest and made him wonder if maybe they could do it, if maybe it was right.

It hadn't been. And he couldn't help but resent her for it. At least Lilly hadn't left him voluntarily.

He couldn't even remember how he got down to the street. One minute he'd been shaking on the floor of his bathroom, the taste of bile and vomit burning his throat, and the next he was kneeling on the pavement and screaming. He screamed for all of them. For Duncan and his baby, for Veronica and her bitterness, for Lilly and her stolen youth. He might have been crying. He couldn't tell. He could hardly feel anything anymore.

It was at that moment that he felt two arms close around him. He whirled around and almost said 'Lilly.' Then he realized who it was, struggled, and remembered that he still didn't know her name. Just Lilly's eyes, Veronica's wit, and something altogether different that he could not place with her anonymity.

He was trembling, shaking, and must have looked a little wild. Other people were keeping their distance. They looked afraid. The No-Name Girl didn't seem to be phased in the slightest. She ran a cool hand down his face and asked him if he was all right.

He wrapped his arms around her waist and sobbed into her stomach. It was humiliating in one way, cathartic in another, confusing in a third. But mostly, it was just a comfort to feel like maybe someone might give a damn.


	4. Not Soon Enough

Maybe Redemption Has Stories to Tell  
04: Not Soon Enough  
Written for the Sailor Moon Monthly Fanfiction Challenge on LiveJournal  
May Challenge - Day Four: '80s Cartoons  
by Kihin Ranno  
4/20

When Logan woke up, he was back in his bed. She was there again, her back to him, a blood red bow in her hair. The first thing he thought, rather ridiculously, was how much it reminded him of Lilly's My Little Pony collection. She and Veronica used to play with them, even when they knew how to drive. The two of them would make up little stories and run them up and down Duncan and Logan's back. Then Duncan and Veronica would leave, and he and Lilly would be alone. At first, Logan would feel awkward, all those jeweled eyes watching him while he pulled Lilly's top off and while she wrapped her hand around his cock. He would get over it fairly quickly, though not soon enough.

She turned around, sensing his wakefulness. She smiled softly, but it was enough to light up a room. "Hey there, Jaded."

He looked away, oddly ashamed that his one-night stand had seen him screaming in the street like a maniac. "How'd you get me here?"

"With minimal difficulty," she joked, perching on the edge of the bend. Her features were soft with either sympathy or pity. Logan wasn't particularly fond of either. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I want to be drunk."

Her cheery facade cracked a bit. Lines appeared around her mouth. He wanted to make a joke about her getting wrinkles, because that always seemed to upset California girls. But he was suddenly realizing that she was no California girl. She had some sort of accent. Korean? Chinese? He couldn't tell. It all sounded the same to him.

"Is that why you freaked out?" she asked point blank. He hadn't known that Asians were so direct. "Withdrawal?"

"Well, it certainly didn't improve my disposition," Logan snapped. People shouldn't be allowed to be that disarming. "Now, do you want something? Monetary compensation for your heroism? Another fuck? I could try to canonize you, but I hear you need to be a dying virgin to do that." He rolled his eyes. "Catholics."

She let him go on his rant, remaining silent for a few moments to make sure he wouldn't continue. Then she said, "I want to make sure you're all right."

He wanted to believe her, and he almost did for a minute. Then he realized how stupid he was being again and resisted the urge to hit himself. Barely.

"Pretty girls shouldn't lie," he said rather nonsensically. After all, it was the pretty ones who lied the most.

She snorted a little and said, "Sweetie, I'm a few steps up from pretty."

"And I suppose you're not lying?" he said, beginning to become annoyed.

"I'd say as much, but you're not listening to me," she observed with a sigh.

She collected her things and began to head towards the door of his apartment. Her bright red bow stood out alarmingly. He was reminded of giggling girls singing '80s hits at the top of their lungs and trying to convince him of the social relevance of My Little Pony. It had been simple then.

"Do try not to have a mental breakdown on the sidewalk again. Getting you up the stairs was a bitch and a half."

"I could say the same for you," Logan muttered.

She waved goodbye, flicking him off for a moment before lowering her hand. Then she continued sauntering out the door, shutting it without a sound. It had a sense of ending, though not necessarily finality, and left his apartment cold, dark, and dead.

Like so many others. Like so many would be. Like he sometimes wished he could be.

He decided it was time to be drunk again, and that alone gave him the will to get out of bed. After all, he'd get over it quickly. Just not soon enough.


	5. Ever Slowly Dying

Maybe Redemption Has Stories to Tell  
05: Ever Slowly Dying  
Written for the Sailor Moon Monthly Fanfiction Challenge on LiveJournal  
May Challenge - Day Five: Illness  
by Kihin Ranno  
5/20

Men, Minako decided, were a lot like cancer. You could take pills to numb the pain, you could drink to forget them, and you could even have surgery to try and fix every problem you'd ever had. In the end, they'd still kill you.

That was the feeling Minako had when she left Jaded Boy's apartment building. Not that he was doing her any real harm in being an incredible jackass, and an incredibly hot jackass at that, but still. Everything about him spelled troubled, embittered, and ever slowly dying. And she could tell that he was not the type to go quietly, peacefully, or to go alone. It was better if she kept her distance.

Minako paused outside the building, and looked up to where she though his window was. She found herself thinking that she'd never seen a man drowning on the sidewalk before. And she had died, watched her friends die, watched innocent strangers die, and watched enemies die at her hand. Still, she had never seen in anyone in that much pain and in that much desperation to end it.

She pursed her lips, swallowing on a dry mouth. She felt some sense of duty or obligation to save him, rescue him, to play the hero again. But no amount of magic could help him now.

And as she shoved her hands into empty pockets, she remembered that she couldn't have even if she wanted to. She no longer had that power.

With a sigh, she turned and walked down the street and faced a world that was ever so slowly dying.


	6. Without Healing

Maybe Redemption Has Stories to Tell  
06: Without Healing  
Written for the Sailor Moon Monthly Fanfiction Challenge on LiveJournal  
May Challenge - Day Six: Fire  
by Kihin Ranno  
6/20

He drank that day. Drank himself beyond stupor and cognition. He drank so much that the line between wakefulness and slumber vanished and he found himself staring that nameless girl in the face even though he knew he'd thrown her out hours ago.

She was wearing Lilly's close and Veronica's smile.

"Are all blondes this pesky or is it just the ones that I sleep with?" Logan asked crudely, ungratefully all things considered. He'd never been one to say thank you if his mother wasn't around to make him. And she was dead, so that made things rather difficult.

She smiled at him, blue eyes sparkling and just one corner of her mouth curling upwards. "Did anyone ever tell you that you're fire?"

"I've never even heard that I'm fired," Logan said smartly. "That sort of thing only happens to people with jobs. So I'm told."

"You're fire, Jaded Boy," she continued, not phased by his comments. "Wild, uncontrollable blazes destroying everything in its path. You're destruction without rebirth, damage without healing. You're dangerous."

Logan nodded. "Dangerous. Now that sounds familiar."

"Your fire is going out, Jaded Boy," she said seriously, dancing around him as if angel's breath held her aloft. "You're going to get snuffed out. You'll burn yourself and no amount of wit or miracles could change you back."

He'd heard it before. He'd heard it when Lilly was accidentally serious or when Veronica had packed up all of her things and left her ring behind. Even Weevil, ex-gang leader who lived in the thick of trouble while Logan just full into it, had told him that he was quickly on the path of killing himself. And they'd all left him, whether it was by force or by choice. He was alone.

Except for the girl with Lilly's laugh and Veronica's spark.

"Are you going to save me?" he asked, bitter but hopeful at the same time.

She kissed him then and he almost felt it. "Only if you let me," she said.

He woke up three days later, cold and naked and wanting on the floor. Once he finished crying and throwing up, assuring himself that he was really breathing, he picked himself up and went searching.


	7. Heroine Addict

Maybe Redemption Has Stories to Tell  
07: Heroine Addict  
Written for the Sailor Moon Monthly Fanfiction Challenge on LiveJournal  
May Challenge - Day Seven: Group Project  
by Kihin Ranno  
7/20

It was the sort of thing that should have required a group intervention. It was why she hesitated when he found her apartment five days after she'd last seen him.

Minako had arrived home late, her shoes in her hands and her make up smeared. He'd been sitting outside her door playing solitaire. He'd looked very young as she caught sight of him from down the hall. It had made her wistful.

She'd stopped, feeling rather exposed and a little afraid. After all, she was vulnerable now, a realization that still left her bitter and queasy each time. Still, she'd simply arched an eyebrow and asked, "How did you find me?"

He'd looked up, not that surprised to see her. He'd probably heard her humming on her way up the stairs. "I have my ways."

"That's unsettling," she observed.

"I knew a private eye once," he elaborated. He spared a very small smile. "Intimately." Then he'd turned back to his game. He was reshuffling the deck after a loss. "Didn't you say you wanted to make sure I was all right?"

Minako had blinked, recalling this, but hardly expecting a regular update on his condition. She hadn't been sure she was quite that interested. "Umm... yes?"

"Well, I'm not," he'd said simply, honestly. "And I'd like your help."

Minako had been naturally dubious. She didn't know him. She'd known him for a day or less, and seen just how broken he was. It was enough to make the strongest run away, and she was no longer that strong. "You don't even know my name, Jaded Boy."

He'd shrugged again. She had been amazed at how he could make the gesture seem so effortless and so heavy at the same moment. "And yet I know you so well."

She'd never appreciated people making such assumptions about her, so her tone had lost a lot of its pleasantness in her response. "Do you now?"

He'd nodded, sniffing a bit. "I do."

"What do you know, Sage?" she'd asked, switching nicknames in a rush of bitterness and memories.

He had looked up and made eye contact. His eyes had made her stop breathing. "Don't you want to save me?"

It was the sort of thing that should have required a group intervention, the healing of a man. It was why she hesitated when he asked. Because they didn't know each other. Because they'd slept together once, inebriated by lust and Smirnoff's. Because she knew how damaged he was, knew how weak she was, and knew that if she got in too deep, she might end up drowning at his side.

But she couldn't seem to breathe when she looked in his eyes.

"Get inside," she said against her better judgment, wondering why a part of her still insisted on playing the hero. But she still didn't hesitate to help him to his feet, looping her arm through his as she opened the door.

It wasn't until later, after he was asleep on her couch when she looked up and asked whoever was listening what the hell had possessed her.


	8. The Difference

Maybe Redemption Has Stories to Tell  
08: The Difference  
Written for the Sailor Moon Monthly Fanfiction Challenge on LiveJournal  
May Challenge - Day Eight: French  
by Kihin Ranno  
8/20

The more time he spent with her, the less he thought of her as a cross between Lilly and Veronica. There were similarities, as there seemed to be with everyone woman he met, but that was only because he went looking for them. Neither Lilly nor Veronica had ever attended to him so gently. Veronica had been too sharp, too hardened, and Lilly had never known what to do when he showed up broken on her doorstep except kiss him and blow him and fuck him until he seemed to forget about it. Neither Lilly nor Veronica had been exceptionally strong physically, and as he quickly learned, his still nameless companion was quite formidable in that area. He still found himself gaping as she casually lifted things even he would strain against without flinching. And neither Lilly nor Veronica had seemed so... deep. Lilly had been shallow, or at least she'd played at it. And while Veronica had a sullied outlook on life and while she had seen a lot, there was something leagues deeper about this girl.

He was thinking that when she caught him staring at her one morning. She'd smiled knowingly, brushing her hair out of her eyes as she poured the milk into her cereal. "What?"

Of course, Logan couldn't tell her what he'd actually been thinking, especially since it was different from what she thought he'd been thinking. So, he improvised. "You speak French when you're asleep."

She paused, surprised on a number of levels. She replaced the milk in the refrigerator and asked, "The kind the speak in France or the kind you speak when you trip over the coffee table in the middle of the night?"

"Both," he admitted truthfully. "But I was speaking of the kind in France." He took a long swig of his water, ignoring how his hands shook. He'd already gone through the worst of the withdrawal, but he was still jittery. "Do I have your accent wrong?"

She paused, seeming upset about something in his words. But the flash of frustration passed as quickly as it had come upon her. She smiled pleasantly and simple asked, "Accent?"

"I thought I heard Chinese or... something," Logan said helplessly.

Her eyebrow twitched. "Japanese actually."

"But you speak French?" Logan pressed.

She nodded slowly, shading her eyes with her bangs. "I lived in Paris for a time."

"What was that like?" he asked, prying now, trying to see if she'd open up to him at all.

"Uneventful," she said sharply. She turned on her heel and went back into her room, her breakfast untouched.

Logan narrowed his eyes at this other difference. Lilly would never have been so secretive. And Veronica would never have been so patient.

He was happy to have found another.


	9. Poor Little Rich Boy

Maybe Redemption Has Stories to Tell  
09: Poor Little Rich Boy  
Written for the Sailor Moon Monthly Fanfiction Challenge on LiveJournal  
May Challenge - Day Nine: Royalty  
by Kihin Ranno  
9/20

She'd returned from wherever it was she went every night with a newspaper in her hand and a smile on her face. It was morning and she was wearing the same clothes she'd been wearing the night before. He had his theories and he didn't like any of them.

But her grin was the sort a cat had with canary feathers sticking out of its teeth, so he did ask a question. "What are you smiling about?"

She held up that morning's paper. His picture was on the cover with a headline that read, "MOVIE STAR SON STILL MISSING." Logan thought he must be turning green, but she didn't seem to notice.

"Logan Echolls," she pronounced for the first time, still smiling. He'd sometimes dreamt of her saying his name, but they'd never been vertical then. "I had no idea I was housing Hollywood royalty."

He looked away, brooding and vexed. He'd been planning on telling her. Mostly hoping that she'd tell him who she was. But she already knew his father was a bastard. Now she knew that he'd been a famous bastard. "I'd hardly call the son of a murderer royalty."

She shrugged. "All good kings were killers," she told him, laying the paper down on the coffee table. "The difference between them and the bad ones really lies in the numbers."

Logan jerked, wanting to upset some of her furniture, but it was probably too heavy for him to propel. "Could you not spout your philosophical crap at me right now!" he yelled, the vein on his neck popping out. "It's like you have a reason for every shitty thing that… This is... He killed my **girlfriend**, he--"

"Have you ever noticed that you never refer to her in the past tense?" she asked, completely unaffected by his tirade.

Logan very much wanted to hit her. "Yeah, have you ever noticed how self-righteous and smug you can be?"

She paused, pursing her lips. "I suppose after everything I've been through, I have a tendency to act entitled. I assumed that's why we got along."

"We get along because you were a good fuck," Logan snapped. "Not that I've seen any more of that."

She positively bristled, her hair standing straight up on her arms. "I was unaware that you were under the impression that prostituting myself had anything to do with my helping you."

"Where do you go at night anyway?" Logan asked, suddenly bold.

She stared at him, laughing after a moment. "Are you even asking me that question?"

"Yeah," he snapped. "I want to know."

She stalked over to him, oddly imposing in spite of her smaller stature. Her blue eyes were flashing with that same entitled anger he knew he held. It seemed much more appealing on her. "I go wherever you think I go, Logan Echolls. You fill in the blanks. And don't you go getting pissed off about it, because the only way that you can be is if we're involved. And we're not. I'm your friend. That's it."

"Some friend," Logan seethed. "I still don't know your name."

He had a point, and that only seemed to infuriate her more. "It's better if you don't know it."

"For who?" he asked. "For me or for you?"

She looked at him again, as if tempted to say. Then she remembered something and looked pained, pushing past him and into the kitchen, pulling her spike heels off as she walked. "I'm telling you, I'm doing you and me a favor."

"Tell me," he ground out.

"You don't get to order me around, Logan," she warned. "Don't act like you can."

He reached out and grabbed her arm, glaring into her eyes that showed neither surprise nor fear. "Tell me what the hell is going on!"

"You're no prince here, Logan!" she yelled, not bothering to pull herself away. "You're just a poor little rich boy who can't even kill himself properly."

Logan shut his eyes. "Shut up."

She didn't. "So you latched yourself on to the one person who might help you. It didn't matter who it was or where it was. I just reached out and you've had your hooks in me ever since."

"I said shut up."

"You're drowning, and damned if I'm going down with you!" she shouted. "I can take away the drinks, I can take away the other women, but I can't take her away can I? I can never take your dead girlfriend away!"

"God, Lilly, would you just shut up!" he screamed, shaking her and then pushing her away. As soon as the words had left his mouth, he felt himself start to shake. He stared at her, wondering enough for them both.

Again, she wasn't surprised. "You can find as many differences as you want," she hissed. "I'll always remind you of your dead girlfriend."

Logan had no idea how to respond to that. So, terrified of himself and of her, he turned on his heel and nearly ran from the apartment, pulling his hood up over his head when he heard her yell after him.

"The prince flees from the truth once again!"

A beat.

"And no one is surprised."


	10. Inner Dialogue for a Dying Man

Maybe Redemption Has Stories to Tell  
10: Inner Dialogue for a Dying Man  
Written for the Sailor Moon Monthly Fanfiction Challenge on LiveJournal  
May Challenge - Day Day Ten: "One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing; that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one." -- Agatha Christie  
by Kihin Ranno  
10/20

Minako stared after him. She'd won the argument. He was gone. Things could be normal again.

She slammed the door as soon as she could no longer hear his footsteps echoing in the stairwell. A picture fell off the wall, and she watched it hit the carpet, a little sorry when it didn't break apart on contact. She was tempted to smash it just to punctuate the fall, but decided against it.

Instead, she stormed back into the main room of her apartment, fuming. "Who the hell does he think he is?" she seethed. "He doesn't even know me. Who is he to act like he has any clue about anything? It's his own damn fault for getting mixed up with me in the first place. For all he knew, I could have murdered him in his sleep. I could have taken his money, I could have... I could have done a lot of things."

Minako let herself trail off, and in the silence, she wondered about whose fault it was that he didn't know her. She was the one who hadn't even told him her name for a paranoid fear of reprisal. And even though he'd asked her for help, she was the one who'd let him in. She opened the door, and he'd trusted her to help.

And then what does she do?

"No," she argued with herself, storming into her bedroom to get out of her dress from the night before. "He deserved it. He had no right to pry, he..."

He was hurting. He was still hurting and she'd rubbed it in. Maybe she'd been trying to get him over it, but that had been stupid. How many years had he harbored this anyway? How long had he been grieving? How could she have been arrogant enough to think that a little tough talking was enough to get him over it?

She'd wanted to fix it. But this was the sort of problem that she didn't have the power to fix. She could only stand by and watch it heal.

"But why should I?" Minako hissed. "I don't owe him anything. He's just a boy."

Just a nameless boy she'd let into her apartment because he sparked something in her. Something she'd thought she'd lost. Not her soul, not her heart, but something just as important.

Her need to protect.

"God... damn him!" she shouted. Then she reached into her closet, pulled out the appropriate outfit one wore in these situations, and headed out the door.

Minako always did have a tendency to win the arguments no one was meant to.


	11. Catch My Fall

Maybe Redemption Has Stories to Tell  
11: Catch My Fall  
Written for the Sailor Moon Monthly Fanfiction Challenge on LiveJournal  
May Challenge - Day Eleven: Suicide  
by Kihin Ranno  
11/20

She'd searched the whole day for him. She'd run everywhere and hadn't stopped for so much as a good break. She was running on adrenaline and anxiousness. It was a somewhat welcome feeling.

She'd found him long after dark, balancing on a bridge, an empty bottle of liquor smashed on the ground. His balance was poor and he didn't seem to care.

"Logan?" she asked cautiously.

He looked over his shoulder, surprised to see her. He laughed, shaking his head. "Come to talk me down, _ma cherie_?" He shook his head, closing his eyes. "Won't work."

"Logan, we can talk about this," Minako offered, swallowing on an empty stomach and feeling like she might throw up. "There's no reason to do this."

"Is there a reason not to?" he asked, looking pained. "You said I can't kill myself properly. I figured, why not go the way of dear old mummy?"

Minako paused, trying to comprehend. Then she remembered. "Lynn. Your mother. She--"

"Jumped off a bridge," he finished, nodding. "They never found a body, but I saw a tape that got the whole thing on film. Stupid kid still hasn't shown it to anyone. But it's how I know she's gone."

Minako stared, starting to wonder if maybe he did have the monopoly on tragedy. "Look, Logan," she began, walking forward as slowly as she could, hoping he was too inebriated to notice. "You're drunk. I know you don't really want to do this."

He shrugged and sniffed, wiping his nose with his sleeve. "Maybe. Maybe not. It's not the first time I danced on a bridge."

"You're pissed," she offered. "I get it. Logan, I had no right to--"

"No, it's not about you," Logan scoffed, his laughter sounding like sobs. "Its me. I just..." he paused, looking up and trailing off. "I loved her. You know?"

Minako paused, wondering if she really did know. Then she realized that she did know, and wondered how she could have been so stupid. "Logan... I lost someone too. I loved him, but... He did some horrible, _horrible_ things, and... When he died, I tried to concentrate on that, but I couldn't. I still loved him, no matter how much I told myself not to. And maybe I still do, I... I don't know."

Logan stared at her. "You know?" he asked, his voice quiet, broken.

She nodded, her throat starting to close up.

He swayed on the edge, burying his fingers in his hair. "If you know, then why... why did you--"

"I don't know," she admitted. "I guess... You reminded me. I try not to think about him too much, and… there you were. And you couldn't get past your… Lilly, and it reminded me."

Logan looked up, leaning back. "I just want her back."

Minako's eyes softened. "I know."

"She was… everything," Logan said, throwing his arms out to try and encompass the word with a gesture. "And now she's nothing, and…"

Minako wet her lips, walking forward quickly while his back was turned. "Logan, you don't have to do this."

"Didn't you say that already?"

"Well, it clearly bears repeating," she said, a little prickly. "Come home with me, Logan. We can try this again. I can… I can try to help you. I think I know how this time."

"I won't remind you of your dead boyfriend?" Logan asked.

Minako opened her mouth to correct him. Boyfriend really didn't seem like the right term. Still, she knew that it was hardly the time. "No more than I remind you of Lilly."

"So, what…" he asked, still swaying and making her nervous. "We try not to destroy each other? That's how we survive?"

She shrugged. "Better than doing it ourselves."

Logan looked a long way down, as if still contemplating.

"Get down, Logan," she said firmly.

He took a deep breath, and she knew he'd made his decision. She was fully prepared to leap forward and drag him back up if she had to, but it turned out not to be necessary. He fell back, making her dodge forward and almost catch him before his head hit the pavement. He remained limp for a moment, before his arms wrapped around her. He was already crying. She held him, wondering if she was going to start crying herself, and wondering who it would be for. She decided it was best not to analyze.

"Minako," she said suddenly, stroking his hair as he wept into her shoulder.

"What?" he asked, confused.

"My name," she whispered, surprised at herself and terrified that anyone other than the two of them could hear her. "It's Minako."


	12. Undeserving

Maybe Redemption Has Stories to Tell  
12: Undeserving  
Written for the Sailor Moon Monthly Fanfiction Challenge  
May Challenge - Day Fourteen: Waste  
by Kihin Ranno  
12/20

Logan Echolls had never considered himself a waste of space before that moment. But as he leaned on that girl's (Minako, her name was Minako and we would call her Mina for short because the last syllable was just too much damn trouble) shoulders, he almost couldn't help himself. He couldn't hold himself up much less think very highly of himself. He kept almost falling, but she was strong, holding him up even though he was bigger and had bigger problems than he thought she could handle. But there she was, even after she'd chased him out, and she wasn't leaving him behind.

And her kindness made him feel like a waste because he didn't deserve it.

He felt so fucking cliché again, dancing on bridges and drinking himself into a stupor and crying into a blonde's arms and wishing that she would just fucking kiss him already so that he wouldn't have to focus on himself. He wouldn't see Lily's dead eyes on the computer monitor or Veronica's back as she walked out of their apartment for the last time or his mother's red convertible abandoned on the highway or his father's smile that he had scene on the corpse when he'd had to identify it, as if he knew that even though he had died, he'd still gotten away with murder. He would just feel, and he wouldn't feel what was ripping through him right then and there, and that would have been a vast improvement.

"Why did you come back?" he mumbled, his face parallel with the ground.

She stumbled a bit and said, "Guilt more than anything I suppose."

Logan sniffed. "I make you guilty?"

She shook her head. "No. I make me guilty. You make me..." she trailed off, glancing over in his direction and trying to smile. "I'm not entirely sure what you make me."

Normally, Logan would have made a joke about how he wished she'd said horny. But as it was, he couldn't come up with the joke.

"Did you really not love anyone again?" Minako asked suddenly, prying into his personal affairs as if she had any right to. "After... Lilly?"

Logan opened his mouth, initially to snap at her, but then he remembered that she was carrying him home after everything that had happened, and he reconsidered. "There was another girl. Her name was Veronica. She was Lilly's best friend."

"Was it the same?" she queried, her blue eyes curious and anxious under the moonlight.

Logan shook his head. "No. Lilly and I were... tragic. Even when she was alive. But Veronica and I were..." He laughed, remembering her story about his drunken (alterna) prom confession. He still didn't remember it, but after Cassidy died and they'd started going out again, it didn't hurt as much so she told him what he'd said. It had been the first night they'd had sex, when she told him.

"I once told Veronica that I thought we were epic," Logan surmised, remembering how true he had thought that had been, even when she'd walked out the door. He still sometimes expected her to show up, and if she did, he knew things would be just as painful.

Minako laughed, still nervous and a little shaky. "Ruined lives and bloodshed?"

Logan blinked. "Yeah... Exactly like that."

Minako nodded sadly, her eyes suddenly growing distant. Logan got the feeling that she was suddenly in another time. She was far away from him for a few seconds, and it made him feel frightened and abandoned, even though he still felt the warmth of her hands and her hair brushing up against his legs.

"I know about epic," she whispered softly in a voice he didn't recognized. "All too well."

That was the moment that Logan was suddenly coordinated enough to bury his hands in her endless hair and push her against the wall. He kissed her hard until she was next to him again. He knew it happened when her arms curled around his neck and she kissed him back.

That was the moment they both forgot.


	13. Frenetic Copulation

Maybe Redemption Has Stories to Tell  
13: Frenetic Copulation  
Written for the Sailor Moon Monthly Fanfiction Challenge on LiveJournal  
May Challenge - Day Fifteen: Savior  
by Kihin Ranno  
13/20

When she kissed him, she was rescuing him from himself. He breathed her in and all thoughts of Veronica and Lilly and his dead parents and his tragic past were forgotten. In fact, there was no past when she kissed him. He lived in the present for the first time since he could remember. He could scarcely think but for the fact that he felt good, this felt good, she felt good, and he never wanted to breathe anything but her. He was wanting, he was wild, and he was whole when she kissed him. It was enough to make a man stop drinking.

_When he kissed her, he was possessing her. He was demanding all of her attention and all over being. All of her reservations and worries fell away with his lips on hers and his arms wrapped around her so tightly it was like he was trying to meld them together so that she'd never leave him ever again, and he was so desperate, she almost wanted that. A part of her knew that she shouldn't be doing this. He was damaged, he was vulnerable, and he needed more help than she could give him. But another part of her didn't care or maybe wanted him all the more for those reasons. He was impossible, and she'd always lived to do the impossible._

If there was one thing LA was good for, it was the fact that there were plenty of secreted alleys Logan thought had been made specifically for the purpose of horny kids unable to make it home. He took advantage of one right then, spinning her back into. She giggled, and he pushed his tongue into her mouth. Though she didn't seem to be protesting, he wondered if he should ask her if it was all right to have sex in an alleyway after he had tried to jump off a bridge. Of course, he didn't care because damn it, she was finally kissing him again, and what did he care about psychological trauma?

_Her back was up against a wall and his hands were inside her shirt and she bit his neck when he pulled away. She thought maybe he was going to do something silly like ask her a question, and she did so hate it when men allowed themselves to be distracted by such nonsense. They weren't in much of a position for foreplay, and grief was a surprisingly potent aphrodisiac, so it didn't take very long for her to get rid of her skirt (thank God she was wearing a skirt; she'd done this in pants and found that it was less enjoyable to have her ass hanging out for anyone to walk by and see, thank you very much) and wrap her legs around his waist. He said something about coordination, but she bit him again because talking annoyed her and then she kissed him to keep him from doing it again._

He was fucking her in an alley. He was fucking his savior in an alley, and she was moaning in his ear and making liberal use of her tongue and teeth, since their position made use of her hands rather limited. Logan thought that if all people who made suicide attempts went out and fucked people in alleys directly afterwards they would be much less likely to try again. Then he thought that it was probably blasphemous to call her a savior when he was inside her and she was throwing her head back. Then he remembered that he was an atheist so it didn't really matter anyway.

_Minako sometimes wished that she had the patience to keep a diary because she wanted her ancestors to one day find her diary and find out about the day that she had had the best sex of her life in an alley with Logan Echolls. Her nails were digging into his back and they were both trying not to be too loud, but she'd never been a quiet lover. She shouted loud enough to wake rouse someone upstairs and she was instructed to keep it down so Logan kissed her, pretending that he wasn't having considerable trouble himself, though he was a quiet lover. When she finally started coming down, she remembered that he hadn't been able to stand a few minutes ago, and she would have been surprised if she hadn't already known the lengths men would go to for sex._


	14. Maybe It's Like Brigadoon

Maybe Redemption Has Stories to Tell  
14: Maybe It's Like Brigadoon  
Written for the Sailor Moon Monthly Fanfiction Challenge  
May Challenge - Day Seventeen: Broadway  
by Kihin Ranno  
14/20

"So then I said to him, 'Maybe it's like _Brigadoon_. Come back in a hundred years, and it'll be in the same spot.'"

She giggled, tipping her head back and exposing her throat. He could scarcely ever miss that sort of opportunity, so he leaned forward and bit it, making her sound as if she could decide whether to gasp or keep laughing. He backed up instantly, feigning innocence as she glared at him. "You are incorrigible," she observed. "And also very mean. That was a terrible thing to say to him after his car had been stolen."

Logan shrugged, stretching and slinging an arm over her shoulders. "He was a drug dealer."

Minako snorted into her glass of water, holding her hand over her mouth to keep from spitting. She swallowed after a moment, holding her throat as if it had been a bit painful. "Oh, well that makes your comment completely understandable."

"It makes him less sympathetic," Logan clarified.

"Well, you're a jackass," Minako informed him. "But you still demand sympathy."

"I'm also very good-looking," he pointed out. "I don't need to _demand_ sympathy. It naturally falls upon my broad, muscular shoulders."

Minako nodded. "Oh, yes. You're very manly with your musical theater references."

"Do you have any idea how many productions my sister dragged me into when I was a kid?" Logan asked, slightly affronted by her insinuation. "She wanted to be the actress, and dear old mom and dad wanted us to develop a relationship since it was very clear to me that she was the child of Satan and she was jealous that I was prettier than she was. So they put us in all of these community center crap fests where they made me were lipstick and tap dance and all that shit."

Minako, who Logan suspected had at one time had possessed similar career goals but now didn't do much of anything at all, looked dubious. "It couldn't have been that bad."

He stared at her very seriously and said, "I was in _Cats_. Twice."

She winced in sympathy, laying her head on his chest. "Oh, you poor thing. I am so very, **very** sorry."

Logan sighed pathetically, running his fingers through her hair. He let a moment of silence pass between them before he looked down at her and asked, "Does this mean I get pity sex?"

Minako reached around and punched him in the arm. She likely thought it was light, but Minako's idea of a playful punch differed from his own. "You might have gotten any sex period, but you won't now."

Logan didn't pay much attention both because he very much doubted that and because his arm really fucking hurt. "I think you broke my arm."

She rolled her eyes cutely. "Wimp."

"No, seriously. That hurt."

"I repeat. Wimp."

"You hit like a man," Logan observed, glaring a bit.

"And you take it like one," Minako countered with a grin.

Logan glared at her for a moment and then promptly tackled her. She squealed when his hands closed around her forearms, his thumbs pushing into her wrists so that he could feel her pulse. She pretended to try and wiggle away, but she stopped protesting altogether when his lips caught own. Then she relaxed considerably, and Logan began to think that perhaps she was going to reconsider that pity sex thing.

And then someone knocked at the door.

Minako began to turn away, staring at the entrance to her apartment. "The hell?"

"Ignore it," Logan instructed, annoyed with Minako, the person knocking, and the door itself for allowing someone to knock on it. "It's probably just a salesman or something."

"But--" Minako found herself cut off when Logan kissed her again, his hands moving from her arms to her hips. It worked effectively for about two minutes until the knocker made his presence known again.

"Go away!" Logan shouted. "A little busy trying to get busy!"

Minako's poked him. "You can't just shout things like that. What if it were my mother?"

"Then you'd probably be the one shouting it," Logan said. Minako hadn't said a thing about her mother, but he'd been on the receiving end of a lot of "I hate my mother" rants. He believed he was correct in assuming that deep down, all women hated their mothers.

"I would have at least had a Spanish accent so she didn't think it was me," Minako grumbled. "Come on. Let me up. I should answer it."

"No, I think your time can be put to much better use," Logan said, leaning down to kiss her neck.

Minako shivered a bit. "Not fair."

"You know I fight dirty," Logan whispered before going right back to what he was doing. He was about to silently declare his victory as her hands wound around his neck…

And the asshole knocked a third time.

"They're not leaving," Minako sighed, moving her hands to Logan's chest to move him away.

"If we ignore them long enough, they will," Logan quipped. "Or if I tell them to go the fuck away!"

"Stop being a bitch," Minako instructed as she pushed him off when the person at the door knocked again, this time far more urgent than the last. She got to her feet, grabbing her water as she passed by the coffee table. "I am answering the door now. We can continue with the other stuff when I'm done."

Logan laid back on the couch so that he couldn't see what was going on, sighing dramatically. "All right. I'll just sit here… All alone. My sex drive slowly dwindling down to nothing."

"I will hit you again," Minako called out. "And then I'll still answer the door."

Logan just sighed again as he heard Minako undo the various locks on her door. Then he heard her pull it open, cheerfully preparing to greet whoever it was on the other side. But then he didn't hear anything for what felt like the better part of a minute. Not until he heard the sound of something hitting the floor.

"Mina?" he called. "Who is it?"

"Oh my God," she whispered, though he almost didn't catch it.

Worried, Logan propped himself up on his elbows to see just who was at the door. He was a bit surprised to see a very tall man at the door, hands deep in his pockets, and looking at Minako as if he was every bit as surprised to see her as she was too see him. Logan got to his feet, walking forward in order to get a better look at him. He had what Logan could only describe as silver hair and grey eyes. Logan also thought that he seemed very solid, like a giant boulder standing at the door, and it made Logan momentarily feel like he was smoke on the wind, intangible and easily waved away.

"Who are you?" Logan asked the stranger directly, also noticing that Minako had dropped her glass of water.

The stranger looked over at Logan, and while Logan would have assumed that he would have turned right back to Minako, he held eye contact with Logan and said, "I'm a friend from Tokyo."

"No," Minako breathed, shaking her head. "No, you… You're not. You can't…" She took a step back, tripping a bit. Logan and the stranger both reached out to steady her, and she jumped when his hand closed around her forearm. She pulled it away, staring at him in shock, as if she hadn't expected him to do that… No, as if she hadn't expected him to be able to do that. "You _can't_ be here."

It was then that Logan began to realize what was happening. Minako hadn't told him much about her past, but she had told him about one person. And Logan didn't think it was jumping to conclusions to deduce that it was Minako's dead boyfriend at the door.

He was right. Everything was like _Brigadoon_. The past always comes back.


	15. Because It's Real

Maybe Redemption Has Stories to Tell  
15: Because It's Real  
Written for the Sailor Moon Monthly Fanfiction Challenge on LiveJournal  
May Challenge - Day Eighteen: Hallucination  
by Kihin Ranno  
15/20

She was seeing things. She had to be seeing things. She had to be dreaming her the glass on the floor the mark on her neck and the man at the door who could see the mark on her neck and who had heard Logan, fucking Logan, who couldn't keep his hands to himself or keep his mouth shut when **he** was at the door.

Minako shook her head, squeezing her eyes shut tightly and trying very hard to blink him away. But he was still standing there, still seeming very together and very in control, but she could tell that he was hurt. She didn't know if anyone else would have been able to see it (probably Mamoru would), but she could see it and she felt tears pricking at her eyes. She wanted to turn away because she didn't want him to see her cry. But she didn't want Logan to see either, and that only made her want to cry more.

"What are you doing here?" Minako asked, walking away from the door with her palm over her eyes. She felt Logan reach for her, but she didn't know if she could bear that, so she moved away. "How are you here?"

She heard the door close when she reached down for the tissue box she kept handy for sad movies and rows with Logan. She knew that he'd closed the door behind him, and she would have been furious with his assuming he was invited in if it wasn't **him.**

"I was sent," he said honestly.

"But you didn't object," Minako said, almost bitter.

He didn't deny it. "They probably thought they were doing both of us a favor."

Minako wanted very much to scream, but Logan started talking, and for some reason, it calmed her. "Mina, is this who I think it is?"

He looked over at Logan, raising his eyebrow a bit. "She mentioned me?"

"You're all she talks about," Logan drawled, moving over to Minako in a very territorial move. He walked up behind her and put an arm around her waist. She felt torn between pulling away and burying her face in Logan's chest. "She did mention that you were dead."

He stared at them for a minute, and it made Minako reached for another tissue. "I got better," he said, joking a bit.

"I've heard that before," Logan said quietly, glancing down at Minako. Then Logan looked up asked, "What's your name?"

"Takehiko," he responded, bending a bit at the waist.

Minako looked up, staring at him for a moment. She almost questioned him for a moment, but she couldn't get into too much detail with Logan standing there attempting to meld the two of them together. It would bring up to many questions that she had never planned on allowing him to ask. Besides, it would have been stupid to ask him about his name. Of course he wouldn't go by that any more. Too many memories.

Before Logan could ask about how both of them had managed to make death a temporary state of mind, Minako broke in. "How did you know where to find me?"

"I didn't," Takehiko admitted. "But Ami's known for some time."

Minako shut her eyes, clenching her jaw. Of course Ami knew where she was. She should have realized that. No amount of aliases could throw that girl off if she really wanted to find Minako. Apparently she had and kept the information to herself. "And she told you?"

Takehiko nodded. "She thought I should know."

Now Minako did pull away from Logan. She would have very much liked a drink right then, but she'd removed all alcohol from the house when Logan started living with her. She had to pace to circumvent her frustration and keep her from punching something. "How presumptuous of her."

"She thought she was doing the right thing," Takehiko said, trying to soothe her in that way that she often found infuriating until it actually started to work.

"Well, she thought wrong," Minako snapped. "And please feel free to tell her that I said so."

"She was worried," Takehiko told her.

"If she was so worried, she should have come herself," Minako said plainly.

Takehiko narrowed his eyes. "She knew you didn't want to see her."

"I don't want to see any of you," Minako retorted, pausing a bit when she saw a look pass across his face. "And you are one of them, you know."

Takehiko glanced down for a moment, but it was so quick that she almost missed it. "You know that isn't entirely true."

"You're his…" she trailed off, not wanting to use the word 'guardian.' "Friend," she decided finally. It was true at any rate. "His closest. Of course you're one of them."

Takehiko smiled wryly. "It still isn't the same."

"Yeah," Logan cut in, sounding annoyed at being kept out of the conversation or maybe just being kept in the dark. He did have an annoying tendency to take everything too personally. "As I recall you were a bit of asshole towards the end there."

Minako flinched. "Logan--"

"Exactly how much does he know?" Takehiko asked, raising an eyebrow.

"About a smidgen more than jack shit," Logan responded, his tone and posture reeking of hostility. He looked back at her, and it took her a moment to realize he was directing it at her. She'd just assumed he would blame Takehiko because he was probably the most innocent out of all of them, and she felt like an idiot for being that presumptuous.

Minako sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Logan, if you could hold off on being a jackass for about two minutes--"

"It's a permanent condition. Not something I can turn off," Logan retorted. "I would just like to know what in the blue hell is going on here?"

"It's complicated," Minako muttered.

"If I had a shot every time I heard that excuse, I'd have to have my stomach pumped," Logan snapped.

"Well, it **is** complicated," Minako said, her teeth beginning to grind together. "Not everyone feels the need to work out their issues in every conversation," Minako pronounced, referring to the earlier _Brigadoon_ story.

Logan laughed a bit. "At least I bother to work them out vertically."

Minako gaped at Logan for a moment, trying to figure out what to say to that when she saw Takehiko moving out of the corner of her eyes. She looked over to see Takehiko glaring murderously at Logan's back, shifting a bit as if contemplating whether or not to pounce. Thankfully, all he did was speak, his tone deceptively cool. "Maybe you should calm down, Logan."

"Maybe you should get the fuck out," Logan said, his voice rising right alongside his temper as he turned around.

Minako stalked forward, steeling herself to deal with Logan's usual volatile behavior. "Logan, leave him out of it," she warned.

Logan whirled back, looking as though he had somehow been betrayed. "Oh, are you protecting him now?"

"He hardly needs it," Minako responded without pausing to think about what she was saying.

Logan rolled his eyes, throwing his hands up. She could tell he was getting more agitated as his gestures became more theatrical. "Oh, wonderful. Your psychological bullshit again."

Minako glared, moving even closer as she spoke. "I am merely pointing out that if you're going to be pissed at me, be pissed at me. Don't drag other people into it. Especially not when you don't know what they're capable of."

Logan snorted derisively, although she could see him glance back at Takehiko as if he did sense something about the other man to briefly give him pause. "What's he going to do? Kill me?"

"Only if it becomes a necessity," Takehiko said coolly.

Predictably, Logan immediately turned back around to Takehiko, though Minako couldn't say for certain if he was going to throw a punch or just another insult. She moved between them before Logan could make things worse for himself, grabbing his arms to keep him from swinging. She wished she had a third one available for his mouth. "Logan, believe me when I say that you **really** want to stop being an idiot right about now. And I'm protecting you now, so calm down."

"Maybe I don't want that anymore," Logan snapped.

"If that's true, then you don't know what's good for you," Minako countered, her blue eyes flashing dangerously.

"Oh, and you do?" Logan asked, almost laughing at her.

"You have made that infinitely clear on multiple occasions," Minako informed him. "I think I have a list somewhere."

Logan glared at her, slowly letting the extent of his hostility show through. "You've been keeping track of your little project, have you?"

Minako bristled, very much wanting to push him. She somehow restrained herself from doing that, but she couldn't help but tighten her grip on his arms. "You're the one who sat outside my door. You asked for my help."

"And you were all too happy to try and fix the little broken boy, right?" Logan seethed.

"I'm sorry, are you getting angry with me for trying to help you now?" Minako asked, getting very close to yelling at him. "Wow, that makes sense on… no levels whatsoever!"

"I was hung over and very stupid that day," Logan growled. "I would have been better off if I hadn't come here."

Minako scowled, and this time, she did push him back. "You would be **dead** if you hadn't come here."

"I almost died because I came here!" Logan shouted. "Or have you forgotten?"

Minako shut her eyes, her hands clenching into fists. He just had to bring that night up didn't he? She hadn't wanted to talk about that fight, hadn't even wanted to think about it. But she should have known that he was merely keeping his mouth shut long enough to use it against her to hurt her. They were both very good at that.

"Of course I haven't," Minako said slowly, trying very hard to keep herself in check. Takehiko was watching, and he was the last person she wanted to lose it in front of. Then again, Logan might not give her a choice. "But don't you dare blame that on me. That was your choice. I didn't shove the vodka down your throat. I didn't put you that bridge. That was you. I was the only one who gave a big enough damn to talk you down."

"Yeah, and thanks for the fuck in the alley afterwards," Logan said darkly.

That did it.

Minako could not remember the last time she had been infuriated beyond the point of speaking. Then again, she also wouldn't remember deciding on how to respond half an hour later, so maybe her memory wasn't something to hold in very high esteem.

She screamed wordlessly and flung herself forward to tear his eyes out or choke him or something along those lines. She only screamed louder when Takehiko grabbed her around the waist, thrashing and kicking like a mad woman. She clawed at his arms to try and get him to let her go. She wasn't used to being overpowered, not anymore, and that also made the situation a bit worse.

Logan had backed away the moment he saw her move, and he was frozen in place when he saw Minako's reaction. She could see him staring, his mouth hanging open. He wasn't used to her losing control, and it seemed to frighten him.

She was glad of that.

"If I were you, I would leave," Takehiko said, his voice infuriatingly steady.

Logan looked up, probably wanting to yell at him for his suggestion, but he couldn't very well ignore Minako's reaction. He stared at both of them for a few minutes more, until Takehiko continued.

"I can only do this for so long, you know," Takehiko added. "She is wearing heels."

For whatever reason, that seemed to be enough for Logan. He shook his head and bolted, not even pausing at the door to give her one last glance. He shut the door behind him, and even over her yelling, Minako could hear him thumping down the stairs just like last time.

"Let go of me!" Minako yelled, still trying to twist away. This was humiliating, but she couldn't seem to stop herself. She often found she had that problem.

"I would like to, but I can't until I'm sure you're not going to kill him," Takehiko said, straining a bit.

Minako threw her weight forward so that she could at least get her feet back on the ground. "You didn't seem so adverse to the idea."

"I said if it was necessary," Takehiko reminded her.

"You have a fucked up idea of what necessary is," Minako said, her voice cracking.

Takehiko apparently decided it was best not to argue that point with her at the moment. "I'm not going to let you hurt him."

"Why not!" Minako raged. "You should want to hurt him! You're supposed to feel something! You--"

"I do," Takehiko said softly. "You know I do. And that's why I can't let you go."

Finally, Minako stilled just as quickly as she had snapped. She bent at the waist, her hair spilling over her shoulders. She was very quiet, and she felt as if even her heart had stopped at his words. She hung prone for a moment, her eyes wide and staring at the ground. He let her go once he was certain that she wasn't trying to trick him, but she didn't move away. She turned right back around, tears she had been trying to restrain suddenly pouring down her face. She buried his face in his chest, her entire body wracked with sobs, and trying desperately to make everything go away.

But she couldn't do that because it was real.


	16. Remembering When and Why

Maybe Redemption Has Stories to Tell  
16: Remembering When and Why  
Written for the Sailor Moon Monthly Fanfiction Challenge on LiveJournal  
May Challenge - Day Twenty: Memories  
by Kihin Ranno  
16/20

It was a full ten minutes before Minako finally remembered whose chest she was weeping into, whose arms had closed around her, and whose voice was trying to soothe her. When she did realize what she was doing, she pulled away abruptly, turning her back on him and brushing away the remainder of her tears. She knew she wasn't done crying and that stopping like this probably wasn't going to help her, but that wasn't her concern at the moment. Her concern was putting distance between the two of them. At least that she could control.

"I'm sorry," Minako said, feeling very small. "I shouldn't have… I shouldn't have let you see that."

Takehiko didn't speak immediately, carefully figuring out what the best thing to say in this situation was. "I didn't do much to diffuse the situation," he said evenly.

Minako laughed, sounding and feeling quite lost. "Not even you could have done that. Logan is…" she trailed off, thinking how to put it. "Volatile."

"Clearly," Takehiko responded, somewhat distastefully.

Minako winced a bit at the sound of his disapproval. She tried to tell herself that it didn't matter, that he didn't matter. They'd never even been involved in this lifetime. He should expect nothing from her, and she should not have been affected by him.

It didn't change the fact that she winced.

"He hasn't had an easy time," Minako said. "And he's right. He can't really shut the jackass off."

"I don't think you've had an easy time either," Takehiko said, turning the conversation away from Logan.

Minako turned back to him, wiping at her right eye again even though there wasn't anything there. "Exactly how much does Ami know?"

"She knows that you've spent time in London, France, New York, and now here," Takehiko said, only answering the question he had been asked.

"How does that tell you what sort of life I've had?" Minako responded, almost wanting to get angry, but she lacked the energy and the reasons.

"Your eyes say enough," Takehiko responded.

Minako shut them self-consciously. "Stop reading me like that. You know I can't stand it."

"No, I don't," Takehiko reminded her. "And I'm not looking for anything. I'm just seeing."

Minako laughed a bit, running a hand through her hair. "Now I see why Logan gets pissed when I go psychoanalytical. He's right. It is annoying."

Takehiko was about to say something, probably to try to placate her, when she waved her hands to stop him. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's not your fault." She paused. "I would like it to be, but it isn't."

He smiled a bit, though she could tell he wasn't particularly happy with her assessment. "How conscious of you to think that."

"Oh, I'm all about the self-awareness," Minako grumbled, sitting back down on the couch. "It's a surprising result of going into hiding."

Takehiko looked at her for awhile, not joining her. "Why did you run, Minako?"

It was the first time he said her name, and she found that she had to remind herself to breathe for awhile afterwards. "Didn't they tell you what happened?"

He merely nodded.

She looked over at him, perhaps expecting him to go into more detail about it. After a moment, she gestured at one of the chairs, taking care to select one far enough away for her comfort. "Sit. You're making me nervous."

He sat, only because he was asked. She waited until he was settled to continue her inquiry. "What did they tell you?"

"They told me that you'd lost your powers," Takehiko said plainly. "They didn't say how. And they told me that things got ugly between you after awhile, and that one day they went to your flat, and you were gone."

Minako nodded. They would have told him that much. "They put it mildly."

"Rei attempted to be more explicit," Takehiko admitted.

Minako snorted a bit, remembering that her most vicious fights had been with Rei. "I'll bet she did. Who stopped her?"

"No one actually," Takehiko said. "Isamu merely… distracted her."

"Isamu?" Minako questioned. It only took her a moment to realize there was only one person who could have managed to make Rei angry enough to make her forget how angry she must have been with Minako. She blinked, a bit surprised, and then felt foolish for being surprised. If one was back, it only made sense that all of them were back. "Oh," she said finally. "So he still has that talent."

"She could kill him thirteen times over and he'd still have that talent," Takehiko said.

"All that means is she'd try for fourteen," Minako sighed, rubbing her temple.

Takehiko nodded a bit, giving them another chance to lapse into silence. As usual, Minako couldn't abide it, so she was the one to break it. Silences allowed her mind to be too loud, and the last thing she wanted to hear was herself.

"Are you going to ask how it happened?" she asked.

"No," Takehiko said. "If you want to tell me, you will. If you don't, it isn't any of my business anyway."

"Good, because I couldn't tell you myself," Minako said, shutting her eyes. "It was another fight in another war and I took another hit… And then everything was gone."

Takehiko frowned, apparently trying to think of what could have possibly done that. He proved just about as successful as any of the others, saying, "I've never heard of that before."

Minako nodded. "No. It shouldn't have happened. There's no precedent for it. But it did, and I… was rather unpleasant afterwards."

"So you left," Takehiko said, not needing to ask, but still confirming.

"So I left," Minako echoed. "I was useless in the fight, and I couldn't stand watching everyone else get hurt and not being able to do anything. Then I couldn't stand watching everyone or being around them period. It was too much, and I ran." She paused. "I'm not proud of it."

"You could go back," Takehiko offered. "It's been five years."

"I don't want to go back," Minako said somewhat harshly.

"It hasn't been an easy five years," Takehiko observed, looking at her eyes again.

"It wasn't an easy eighteen years before that," Minako countered. "It's never easy anywhere. But I prefer things not being easy by myself."

Takehiko narrowed his eyes. "That doesn't sound like you."

"You don't **know** me," Minako countered, almost shouting.

Takehiko stared at her for a moment, still holding eye contact with her. She wanted to look away, but he had an arresting quality, and she found that she couldn't. Finally, he said something again, before the silence got to be too much.

"No. But I remember you."


	17. So Wrong, So Right

Maybe Redemption Has Stories to Tell  
17: So Wrong, So Right  
Written for the Sailor Moon Monthly Fanfiction Challenge on LiveJournal  
May Challenge - Day Twenty-Three: "The decision to kiss for the first time is the most crucial in any love story." -- Emil Ludwig  
by Kihin Ranno  
17/20

Minako straightened, staring in at him in an entirely different manner than he was staring at her. He was so steady, so even, so everything she wasn't. He'd taken her off guard, disarmed her, and now left her speechless. She looked away after a moment and said, "It would be better if you forgot me."

It was his turn to laugh. "You make it sound like it's easy."

Minako frowned, pushing a lock of hair behind her ear. "Men before you have managed to forget me very easily. I fail to see why you should have trouble doing the same."

"They were fools," Takehiko said simply. "And I am not a fool."

Minako closed her eyes. "I pity your wisdom then."

Takehiko narrowed his eyes, leaning forward in his seat. "You would really rather be forgotten?"

"Logan remembered me," Minako explained. "He wasn't supposed to, but he did. It was my mistake." She paused. "Then again, he's cursed with too many memories as it is, so maybe this was all an inevitability. Either way, I didn't help matters. I reminded him of his past, and I may as well have put him up on that bridge."

"You didn't," Takehiko maintained.

"Well, I did tell him that he couldn't even commit suicide properly and that I reminded him of his murdered girlfriend," Minako muttered, pushing up her bangs with her palm. She could feel him staring, and she wondered if she'd actually managed to shock him. "It was a very bad day all around."

"I see," Takehiko said neutrally. "Well, you… helped him afterwards, anyway."

Of course, he had initially meant talking Logan down, but Minako quickly realized that by bringing up the bridge, she was also indirectly bringing up the events after the bridge. She buried her face in her palms, thinking that she had never so desperately wished that she had Setsuna's powers. "Oh, God; oh, God. I am an idiot."

"It's all right," Takehiko said, trying to reassure her even though things were decidedly awkward. "It isn't as if I expected you to be holed up in a nunnery."

"I ought to hole myself up in a _sewer_," Minako said miserably, her voice muffled by her hands. "I'd slap myself, but you wouldn't let me."

"Minako, stop it," Takehiko told her, sounding a bit stern. "You didn't do anything wrong."

"Oh, no, I've just done everything wrong," Minako continued as if she hadn't heard him. "With Logan, with you… My whole life has been one giant mistake starting with my conception."

Apparently, Takehiko had decided that her self-deprecation had officially crossed over into the realm of insanity. He moved by her, his hands closing around on her shoulders. She almost expected him to shake her, but all he did was leave them there. "I said stop it," he repeated, this time, his voice as harsh as he would allow himself to be with her. "Why are you doing this to yourself?"

"Because you both deserved better," Minako said, looking up at him again, but not quite meeting his eyes. "He deserved better out of life and someone better to try and help him, and you…" she trailed off, unable to finish her sentence. She blinked rapidly, the blur of her lashes making her eyes look dark.

"You did help him," Takehiko insisted, knowing better than to turn the conversation onto himself. "You… saved him."

"I made it so that he needed saving," Minako countered. "What is that? A Hero Complex?"

Takehiko looked at her, the corners of his eyes turning downward. She couldn't tell if he was studying her or pitying her. "How long have you been like this?"

"It's something of a permanent condition," Minako said, almost snapping. "It's just worse right now."

"Why?" Takehiko asked, still baffled by why she felt that way in the first place.

"Because you're here!" Minako told him, her voice breaking from the strain again. She clenched her fists and shut her eyes, squeezing in hopes that something would explode and distract them from this conversation. She should have just stopped talking, but she knew better than to think that would solve anything. "Because you're here and you're hurt and I'm the one doing it and--"

It was yet another sentence she would never get to finish as the result of suddenly being kissed. She went rigid, shocked by his loss of control. If that was actually what it was. Still, she didn't think long about that as her head began to swim and everything began to ache. The contact was painful, but she couldn't stop herself from kissing him back. She'd never been able to. Even as she felt her heart breaking in her chest because she'd missed him without knowing it and that she'd wanted him without knowing it and that Logan could walk in at any moment and see them.

That was what made her pull away, and he seemed to realize it at the same time. He stared at her, once again silently questioning, perhaps wanting to ask her about why he'd just kissed her.

"I'm sorry," he said, letting her go and moving away from her before she could ask him to or before he could forget himself again. "I… I don't know why I did that."

Minako looked down, saddened that she'd been right. "Neither do I."

Takehiko shut his eyes, nearly sighing. "You know that isn't what I--"

"You should probably go," Minako whispered, cutting him off. But she was the one to get to her feet and leave the room. She didn't know what stopped her from fleeing and slamming the door to her bedroom behind her, but somehow she remained somewhat in control, even as her hands shook against the doorknob as she pulled the door closed.

She didn't move for a moment, pressing her back against the doorway, listening. She couldn't say for sure what he'd do. He might come back to try and sort things out or he might do what she asked. Either way, she knew it wouldn't be the end of it unless she disappeared again, and she had neither the energy nor the funds to do so.

Finally, she heard him turn and walk out of her apartment, finally giving Minako the opportunity to sink to the ground.

She started to cry again, resting her forehead on her knees and attempting to curl into a tight enough ball that she turned inward on herself and vanishing completely. It didn't matter what Takehiko had said. She had done everything wrong, said everything wrong, and ruined just about everything. And now Logan was probably off poisoning his liver and Takehiko was regretting his inability to help her and ten other people were on the other side of the world waiting for her to come back to a place she could no longer call home. She couldn't imagine how she could have made things any worse.

Then again, maybe this was how everyone acted when dead men knocked on their doors.


	18. Fair and Foul

Maybe Redemption Has Stories to Tell  
18: Fair and Foul  
Written for the Sailor Moon Monthly Fanfiction Challenge on LiveJournal  
May Challenge - Day Twenty-Five: Vulgarity  
by Kihin Ranno  
18/20

Logan was not nearly as drunk as he wanted to be when Minako's ex-boyfriend walked into the bar. He hadn't had that much, so he was still perfectly in control of his faculties and still fully capable of remembering how sincere Minako's warnings had been. He wasn't even drunk enough to feel good. He wasn't even drunk at all. He was barely buzzed.

Takehiko sat down next to him, perfectly calmly. Still, some of the other patrons were instantly wary, getting up and moving as far away from the pair as they could. It did not go unnoticed by either man.

"You sure know how to clear a room," Logan observed grimly.

"You'd be surprised how often someone makes that observation," Takehiko responded coolly.

Logan stared at him for a moment, looking him up and down. He suddenly became more aware of just how tall this man was. He towered over Logan even though they were sitting, and Logan was hardly small in stature. He also thought that Takehiko looked more solid sitting amidst the smoke and other broken shells of men by comparison. Logan swallowed and looked away, feeling inadequate again.

"Did you and Mina have a nice chat?" Logan asked testily, wanting very much to throw a punch but also wanting to live to see the next morning.

Takehiko merely looked at him for a moment, his eyebrow raised. He was about to speak when Logan preempted him.

"You know who you remind me of?" Logan asked, suddenly changing the subject.

"I'm sure you'll be more than happy to tell me," Takehiko said, and when he said it, it didn't sound at all impatient or rude. Logan found it somewhat maddening.

"Fucking Sephiroth."

Takehiko looked at him for a moment and then nodded. "I had a feeling you say that."

"You get that a lot too?" Logan asked.

Takehiko nodded in ascent. "I suppose I should be grateful that I remind people of a good-looking psychopath."

"It's the white hair," Logan said. "Have you thought about dying it?"

Takehiko hesitated before answering, long enough for Logan to guess what he was thinking. He laughed out loud and pointed at him. "You've tried, haven't you! You tried to dye your hair! Oh, that's… that's fucking hilarious, man."

"The dye won't take," Takehiko admitted, glancing over at Logan.

Though nothing in his tone suggested it, when Logan's giggle fit subsided and he opened his eyes, he thought he could see something in Takehiko's gaze that he wasn't saying. Something that vaguely resembled the statement, "I'd put that finger away if you're at all attached to it." It wasn't the sort of thing he would ever threaten aloud, and Logan wasn't even certain he was being threatened. He still put his hand down as a precaution.

"It's not just the white hair," Logan said. "You're… fucking terrifying."

Takehiko shrugged casually. "I have been told that I can be imposing. I've also been told by a friend with very colorful language skills that I could make Satan shit a brick. Personally, I don't give it much thought."

Logan didn't know quite how to respond to that, so he took the opportunity to ask the bartender for another drink. Takehiko declined service, and Logan wasn't at all shocked when the burly man tending the bar gave him no trouble. A few more minutes passed after Logan had gotten his drink, downing it one swig. Finally, Logan spoke again.

"You kissed her," Logan said quietly. "Didn't you?"

Much to Logan's surprise, Takehiko didn't deny it. "I did."

Logan winced, looking down at the bar's dirty floor. He had known it. He'd known it from the moment Takehiko walked in the door. There weren't any tell-tale signs like lipstick on his color or her perfume, but Logan had known. Maybe Minako had some sort of effect on men that other men she had in her sway could sense from afar. Or maybe Logan was just paranoid. He couldn't be sure. All he knew for certain was that he felt guilty and miserable and that he wanted to go back to that morning and suggest that he and Minako suddenly move to New York or Timbuktu or anywhere else Takehiko would not have come to.

"Do you love her?" Logan questioned, upset at the amount of emotion in his voice.

Takehiko didn't answer immediately, looking away from Logan to think. He furrowed his brow, shifting a bit in his seat. "I think it would be premature to admit to that," Takehiko said finally, choosing his words carefully.

"Did you love her?" Logan amended. "Back then?"

Takehiko smiled slightly, nostalgic. "I wasn't supposed to. But I did."

Logan raised an eyebrow. "You weren't supposed to? What the hell does that mean?"

Takehiko considered his answer for a second. "There's more to this than you know and more than I think you want to know. You can ask her about it, but good luck getting it out of her. But I can say with certainty that… I don't think any man is supposed to fall in love with her. Not if they ever hope to be sane again."

Logan stared at him for a moment, struck by the profound truth of the statement. He shook his head and muttered, "Ain't that the truth… I don't know how I ever expected a fucking Succubus to help me."

Takehiko chuckled quietly. "You think she's a sex demon?"

"It would explain a hell of a lot," Logan said, downing his third drink for the night.

"Aino Minako is many things," Takehiko said, momentarily confusing Logan with the Eastern way of saying names. "But a demon she is not." He paused. "She's worse than that."

"What could be worse than a demon?" Logan questioned.

Takehiko looked at him very seriously and said, "She's one of the few people who can kill demons."

In spite of the impossibility of his statement, Logan couldn't help but believe him, though the alcohol probably had a bit to do with that. He shook his head and looked forward, his shoulders slumping. He didn't speak again for a moment, but when he did, he didn't say anything that surprise.

"I hate you," Logan said, his voice trembling.

Once again, Takehiko didn't seem the least bit phased by the statement. "I know," he said. Then he got up and left Logan alone in the bar with his demons and his demon killers and his sorrows that he very quickly drowned.

Later, Logan would think that they were both actually very predictable men.


	19. Morning Afters and Ever Afters

Maybe Redemption Has Stories to Tell  
19: Morning Afters and Ever Afters  
Written for the Sailor Moon Monthly Fanfiction Challenge on LiveJournal  
May Challenge - Day Twenty-Six: Caffeine  
by Kihin Ranno  
19/20

Logan very wisely did not return to Minako's apartment until he was sober, which took a surprisingly short amount of time as he had been kicked out of the bar early after attacking another fair-haired patron. He had then holed himself up in a coffee shop and guzzled too many espressos to count. He was now standing outside her door, trying to hold his hand steady enough to knock.

When she opened the door, he knew she'd been crying. He also knew she was alone, and he was relieved.

She looked him up and down and grabbed his trembling hand. "You're shaking," she observed.

"Caffeine," Logan explained.

Minako looked up at him, her crystal blue eyes cloudy with sadness. She gestured back at her apartment and said, "Do you want to come in?"

Logan nodded and stepped inside, shoving his hands into his pockets. He glanced around as if expecting some drastic change to have taken place there. He could see nothing different or out of place, but then he didn't know what he was looking for to being with.

When he heard her finish locking the door behind them, he turned around and said, "I'm sorry." He paused, coughing a bit. "About yesterday. I'm sorry."

Minako nodded, glancing down at the ground. "So am I."

Logan shook his head. "Don't be."

As usual, Minako didn't listen to him. "I shouldn't have lost it like that. I don't even know why--"

Logan stepped forward, cupping her face with his hands and tilting her face upwards. "I said," he whispered, smoothing the pads of his thumbs over her cheekbones, "don't be sorry."

Minako closed her eyes and pushed herself forward, hooking her arms around his waist and burying her face in his chest. His arms closed around her and he rested his chin on the crown of her head. She wasn't crying; she was just hiding. And a part of him knew that she would have hugged anyone at that moment. She would have hugged whoever had been at the door, but he decided to ignore that and just breathe her in.

"I thought he was dead," Minako said after awhile. "I never thought I'd see him again."

Logan nodded, feeling his throat tighten. "I know."

He held her for awhile, listening to the sound of her breathe and contenting himself with the feel of her heartbeat pounding against his rib cage. He couldn't say that he wanted to stay like that forever because to be perfectly honest he could think of a few other things he would rather be doing with Minako. But he also couldn't say that he didn't enjoy holding her. What contact with her or any other human being didn't he enjoy after all?

"So…" Logan began awkwardly, his arms still wrapped around her body. "Are you two going to live happily ever after?"

Minako pulled back, looking up at Logan with an expression he couldn't identify. "Is this your version of the "choose one" speech?"

Logan looked at her evenly, his fingers resting on her hips, still for the first time in hours. "I need to know if you love him, Minako."

She looked down again, closing her eyes so that her coal black lashes were fanned across her cheeks. "So do I."

Logan blinked, his eyebrows drawing together. "You don't know?" he asked, his tone a bit harsher than he had expected.

Minako looked at him like he was being ridiculous, which he probably was. "I suppose I'm not that self aware. No, Logan, I don't know what I'm feeling for whom right now. Yesterday was extremely upsetting on all fronts, and you know it, so don't try and bully me in to anything."

Logan was perfectly still for a moment and then he nodded, knowing she was right. He let her go, turning around and rubbing the back of his neck. He felt his hands begin to shake again now that he was no longer touching her, and at first he thought his lower lip was trembling as well. Then he realized he was speaking.

"It's just that sometimes I think I love you, you know?"


	20. Changing a Not So Pretty Life

Maybe Redemption Has Stories to Tell  
20: Changing a Not So Pretty Life  
Written for the Sailor Moon Monthly Fanfiction Challenge on LiveJournal  
May Challenge - Day Twenty-Seven: "Pretty Life" by Jakalope  
by Kihin Ranno  
20/20

Minako was openly gaping at him. She thought she might actually be in shock, but she sincerely hoped that she was just exaggerating. But it didn't change the fact that her mouth was hanging open and that she felt her exhausted eyes begin to well up with tears again.

She shut her eyes furiously. The last thing she wanted to do was cry. "God, you just had to make things difficult, didn't you?"

Logan turned around, his fire reacting immediately. "I'm just telling you the truth."

"You love me?" Minako asked, her voice breaking. "Damn it, Logan! Don't you know what that does? Don't you know what that means?" She shook her head, her blonde hair flying around her head. "No, you can't. You can't mean that. You have to take it back."

Logan glared, maybe a bit insulted. "I'm not taking it back."

"You have to!" Minako insisted.

"Why?" Logan asked, his jaw clenching. "Because you know that you're not going to choose me and now I've made it harder?"

"No!" Minako shouted, clenching both of her fists. "That's not what I mean at all!"

"Then what do you mean?" Logan demanded, the veins on his temples bulging.

"It screws everything up!" Minako maintained. "Any man I've ever loved has wound up dead or insane or with another woman or… Love is tragedy. Don't you see that? Love is catastrophe!"

Logan laughed mirthlessly, shaking his head. "That's perfect."

Minako couldn't see what he could find to laugh about at that moment, even if it was ironically. "What is?"

"Lilly and I were tragic," Logan repeated. "Veronica and I were epic. And you and I are catastrophic. How very fitting."

Minako scowled at him, her cheeks coloring. "Don't make jokes! You said something serious, and now you have to own up to it!"

"No, you have to own up to it," Logan countered, his eyes flashing. "I love you, Mina. And you have to face that."

Minako shook her head, still refusing to believe. "You don't love me. You just want me to fix you because I'm the only one who gives a big enough damn about you to want to! I'm the only one willing, so you'll say you love me to make me stay. That's all you mean."

"No, it isn't," Logan snapped. "But if you care enough to want to help me, what does that say about you?"

Minako found herself staring at him again, her lips parted in disbelief. She couldn't believe what he was accusing her of, although there wasn't anything terribly offensive about claiming that she loved him in most situations. But still, she couldn't believe it.

She also couldn't believe it when she crossed over to him, threw her arms around his neck, and kissed him so thoroughly that she pushed him against a wall. She kissed him until she thought her lips might bleed, and even then she didn't want to stop. He was the one that broke it off, apparently wanting an explanation.

"What does this mean?" Logan asked, smoothing at her hair with palms and resting his forehead on hers.

"I don't know," Minako admitted, her voice quiet. "Maybe it means that… it's not over. And that… redemption has stories to tell."

Logan chuckled and drew her closer. "I still love you even with the psychological bullshit."

She didn't answer him. She just kissed him again, refusing to think about Takehiko or whether or not she loved Logan or if she would ever go back to Tokyo or if she could even stay in California. Besides, she knew that there was an adage she couldn't repeat correctly about actions and words, and she thought that staying by Logan's side and kissing him until it became painful was answer enough for all of them.

It wasn't really the end of the story. But she acted like it was.


End file.
